Red, White, & Black, a group exhibition at Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, will be on viewfrom February 8 – March 20. There will be an Opening Reception on Friday, February25 from 5-7 pm for the Last Friday Railyard Arts District Gallery Walk. The gallery islocated at 554 South Guadalupe Street in the Railyard Arts District of Santa Fe.

Color startles, it stimulates. Color flashes before our eyes and reels us backward intomemories; it teases out emotions. Color, like almost nothing else, has the power tomove us in unknown ways.

Each year Charlotte Jackson Fine Art provides the opportunity for the public toexplore raw color on its own terms — either a single color or a significant colorgrouping. This year the gallery presents a show focused on the dynamic combinationof Red, White, & Black featuring an engaging array of works from artistsCharles Arnoldi, Joe Barnes, Ronald Davis, Constance DeJong, Tony DeLap,Frederick Hammersley, William Metcalf, Ed Moses, Elliot Norquist, Phil Sims, JeremyThomas, Clark Walding and Peter Weber.

Walk into a winter wood: bare black branches contrast with stark white snow. Andthen a flash of red: a berry, a bird’s wing. There is something very fundamental inthis color combination — the trio goes back to the pre-history of painting. Evenbeyond their symbolic resonances, these three colors form a unique triad. Black,absorber of light, sits in contrast with white, reflecting light. The strain and dissonancecaused by the opposing forces of black and white are charged by the warmth andforce of red, pulsing at the far end of the visible spectrum.

Allegory is left far behind in the minimalist works of Red, White, & Black, but a walkthrough this exhibition is no less dramatic. Clark Walding’s Thin Ice (2nd Lead) is anarresting black painting composed of oil, wax, and alkyd on canvas which offers asubtly of texture that defies its one-color surface. Ronald Davis’ offers a work ofacrylic on expanded PVC, Red-Black Quarters, which draws the eye inward towhere alternating triangles of red and black meet. Viewers will pause at Joe Barnes’Untitled (Cadmium Red, medium hue) which uses acrylic on canvas to create a strikingstudy of red. They may then compare this painting with Phil Sims’ large oil on linenmeditation on red. Elliot Norquist also explores red, but his vibrant version is paintedonto a forty inch steel circle. Jeremy Thomas’ sculptures of twisted, elaborated formsalso utilize steel as a medium for powder coated, high gloss color and WilliamMetcalf’s sculptural Red Arc lifts off the wall in stripes of acrylic red on translucentpolyester fabric. German artist Peter Weber has become best known for his complexfolded felt pieces such as Corner Folding. While the interlocking blocks of tonal redsin Charles Arnoldi’s Possession successfully possess the viewer’s attention and hold it.The viewer of Red, White, & Black will be tempted to circumambulate the galleryover and over again to view each piece individually, pausing perhaps in front ofFrederick Hammersley’s oil on linen Mutual Fund #1, in which he masterfully challengesthe dichotomy of black and white with the up-thrust of red wedge, andthen moving on to explore the ways these pieces interact with one another. Forexample, Tony DeLap’s black and white, skew-shaped piece The Real Secretfinds an interesting counterpoint in Constance DeJong’s quietly mysterious copperand wood, Square 18/3.5 R. Finally, Ed Moses’ twin untitled works of acrylic andmasking tape on Strathmore board create a summary statement for the entireexhibition with their energetic composition of crossing black and white lines withtheir flashes of red bleeding through from beneath.Red, White, & Black offers a chance for the viewer to be startled and entrancedby color.